Earlier this year, the International Organization for Migration reported that more than 3 million refugees fleeing war-torn Ukraine were “at increased risk of exploitation”. In human trafficking cases, they warned, refugees were more likely to suddenly leave home without secure financial resources and “less likely to be identified in the immediate aftermath of mass displacement.” Since February, the European Union has announced that the number is even higher, with more than 5.4 million people having “arrived in the European Union since the war in Ukraine began”.
“All relevant stakeholders have recognized that the threat of human trafficking is great and imminent,” states the EU’s Human Trafficking Plan. As women and children make up the majority of refugees fleeing, the plan assumes they are most at risk.
To respond, the EU began monitoring the online and offline risks of human trafficking, and experts called on countries across Europe to work together to protect refugees during this uncertain time of conflict. This week, Europol, the cybercrime-focused EU law enforcement agency, reported that it had done just that by coordinating the first online EU-wide hackathon.
Bringing together law enforcement authorities from 20 countries to assist in their investigations, the hackathon targeted criminal networks that used social platforms and websites to map the online criminal landscape of human trafficking across Europe. In particular, Europol noted in its report that “investigators targeted human traffickers trying to lure Ukrainian refugees”.
“The Internet and human trafficking are interconnected,” Europol stated in its report, which identified 30 online platforms “related to vulnerable Ukrainian refugees”, 10 specifically targeting refugees for trafficking in human beings.
Europol identified 80 persons/usernames (of which 30 may be exploiting Ukrainian refugees), 11 suspected people smugglers (of which five were targeted by Ukrainian refugees) and 45 possible victims, of which 25 are Ukrainian.
Countries involved in the hackathon were Austria, Albania, Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and Ukraine . Online platforms examined during the hackathon included “a wide variety of websites” and “social media, dating platforms, advertising and help platforms, forums and messaging applications”.
Europol did not immediately comment on Ars.
Next steps in the EU
The European Commission announced in its 2021-2025 Human Trafficking Plan that it would engage with “relevant internet platforms and technology companies to discuss how they can help reduce the use of online platforms, including social media, for the recruitment and exploitation of victims, in particular through online awareness campaigns and content monitoring.”
An expert on human trafficking and international law from Stetson University, Luz Nagle, told Ars that “social media has enabled traffickers to reach more vulnerable people” and that it is crucial to prevent organized crime and criminal activity both offline and online at a time when so many Ukrainians are at risk of being exploited.
“Technology is now being used by criminal organizations to recruit, communicate and transfer” [victims] from one current organization to the older criminal organization,” Nagle tells Ars.
Nagle recently returned from Madrid, where she attended a session focused on preventing human trafficking in times of conflict, such as the war in Ukraine. She said that once countries are aware of where refugees are going and where criminal organizations are located, they can better detect where the greatest vulnerabilities to human trafficking are by implementing both online and offline solutions to monitor illegal activity.
It is common, Nagle told Ars, for refugees to seek transportation from Ukraine and end up in nearby countries such as Poland or Spain. She said it is important for neighboring countries to inform citizens so that they are aware of the risk and can help report suspicious activity, but this is more challenging than it sounds. The EU said in its anti-trafficking plan that “trafficking in human beings is not an immediately visible crime. It often takes weeks or even months to detect the crime and identify victims.”
In addition to hackathons like Europol’s, Nagle told Ars that non-governmental organizations should be more involved in EU-wide investigations to help law enforcement agencies and governments coordinate responses and navigate this complex social problem.
“I think it’s fantastic that different countries in Europe are coming together and trying to organize themselves to prevent the trafficking of refugees,” Nagle told Ars. “But a lot still needs to be done.”
Europol’s work to monitor online platforms reportedly continues.
